Suffering for God's purpose?

This week's assignments in my online seminary class (NT102 Emergence of the Church) were the books of James and Galatians, both favorites of mine.

The book of Galatians has long been one in large part because of Paul’s unusual candor and the urgency with which he writes. He seems to drop all letter-writing convention and the niceties of personal interaction in a frenzied attempt to get his point across to the Galatians – and fast! It has much the same tone that I have found myself using when correcting some particularly foolish behavior in a child of mine. “Honestly! What were you thinking?” I might say. “Don’t you understand that you could have gotten hurt or killed? I can’t believe you did this! What friends were you with? Whose idea was it?” It’s that tone that Paul uses with the Galatians. He can’t believe that any child of his would be so foolish. It’s no wonder that his harshest criticism and most blunt language is reserved for those who were leading his “children in the faith”, as it were, astray.

But what is he so upset over? What is so great a threat to their faith? Nothing other than a teaching that, if true, would render his own faith in vain, not to mention all his work. Namely, that Christ’s sacrifice was for nothing. (2:21, 4:11)

Note: those of you not interested in the theological details... skip the next two paragraphs. :)

Some people, likely outsiders to the local churches, had come and were preaching the need for Gentiles to come under the requirements of the Torah to be saved, to become in essence Jewish proselytes – observant and under the law. And Paul’s harsh reaction to that is because it implies that the work of Christ is not, in and of itself, sufficient for salvation. And for the law to continue to be necessary, also implies that Christ did not in fact fulfill the law as He said He would. (Matt. 5:17-18) For if Christ fulfilled the law, as no other man could, then it no longer is a necessary means to communion with God, but Jesus Christ now stands in that place of atonement and reconciliation with God for us, and communion with God comes through Jesus. To add any requirement to that is to detract from the work of Christ, to render it incomplete and imperfect.

Carson & Moo, Thielman, and Polhill all go into depth on this issue, and cover essentially the same ground, including discussions of contemporary scholarship on Paul that emphasize the idea of “covenant nomism” rather than harsh Pharisaical legalism as the characteristic form of Judaism in Paul’s day. This school of thought on Paul does a better job of reconciling the OT’s emphasis on grace in His covenant relationship with Abraham & Israel to the grace now being shown to the Gentiles in the NT, and is consistent with Paul’s references to the Abrahamic covenant in 3:5-18. The law is seen not as a mechanism of salvation, but as a means of informing us of both our sin and our need for a Messiah to fulfill the law for us.

Whew! That was a lot to squeeze into two paragraphs. And there's almost as much in the next bunch, so if you want to just jump to the conclusion - skip three this time. :)

While this is all interesting, what gripped me personally the most about my reading of Galatians was not covered anywhere in the companion texts. Yet it points to Paul’s high view of God’s sovereignty in the exercise of His grace toward us. In Galatians 1:13-17, Paul is discussing his call to ministry and says several interesting things that I had not noticed before, or at least had not connected in the same way before this. One is that he was set apart by God for his ministry to the Gentiles “from the womb”. Another is that he was called (by revelation on the Damascus road) “when it pleased God” to do so. Putting these two together, it seems clear that God allowed Paul to be steeped in Pharisaical Judaism for years before being called, and even allowed Paul to spend time persecuting the church, which persecution presumably included sending believers to prison and death. He allowed Paul to make martyrs of His people for a time. Why?

Could not God have chosen to intervene in Paul’s life before he martyred God’s people? Imagine the impact that spending time with Jesus, while still in His earthly ministry, might have had on Paul. He could have been a secret follower of Christ as was Joseph of Arimathaea. And yet, God, always zealous for the glory of His name, had other things in mind. For in 1: 23-24, we see the result of Paul’s conversion coming when it did, after he persecuted the church. It resulted in glorifying God. And would it have resulted in that same degree of glory to God if God had not allowed Paul to establish his reputation as one who persecuted the church? Look at how many times Paul went back to that concept in his public testimonies and private correspondence. God definitely used the time of Paul persecuting the church to increase the wonder and praise given to Him as a result of Paul’s conversion, not to mention the added authenticity lent to Paul’s testimony before men.

While we know God does not do evil, or initiate it (James 1:13-15), He definitely allows it for His own purposes. And in this case it seems that He allowed Paul to be trained as a Pharisee, which, coupled with his naturally zealous personality (which God also gave him), resulted in harsh treatment of God’s people. So the suffering of God’s people under the hand of Paul was for a greater purpose than no doubt any of them could see. Certainly at the time Paul’s hand was striking, it could never be guessed that God’s purpose in their suffering was to exalt His name through the later conversion of he who was persecuting them.

So... the point?

This serves as a reminder to us that we can never really know the purposes behind our suffering, and it calls us to faith in God’s greater plan for both us, and others who may benefit because we suffered. This is faith – that God’s intentions for His people are always good, even if He permits our suffering to accomplish that good. It also proves in Paul’s own life (by both the suffering he caused others and, ironically, what he suffered for the Gospel himself) the thing that Paul so often stressed – that God is sovereign in the application of His grace, and we are not to question the hand of the potter in how he molds the clay – or even how he destroys it.

Let the author of this post pay attention.